Rants & Raves by Ken Edwards and Matt Paprocki

Apple seeks dollars in former freebies

Apple's decision to stop offering free downloads of iMovie and iPhoto is part of a clear shift by the Mac maker to try to recoup more of the dollars it invests in creating software for the Mac.
Apple has been pouring resources into consumer software for years, but initially the company gave away the fruits of its labor. The giveaways were justified as a means of differentiating the Mac from its Windows-based rivals. More recently, though, Apple has been making the case to its customers that it needs to bring in revenue from its software efforts in order to keep investing in new development.
Source: C|NET News.com
I understand why Apple pulled iMove and iPhoto downloads off their site. Which I might point out, they did with very little fan fare from the press. They pulled the downloads a while ago.
I do not mind paying $49 ($29 educational) for the new 5 applications (GarageBand being the 5th). iTunes should remain a free download, I do not think Apple would ever NOT have that as a free download. But if you look at iPhoto, iMovie, or for that matter iDVD and now GarageBand, they have committed a lot of resources into development.
Software companies have a long history of giving version 1.0 away for free and then charging for version 2.0, but I think this is smart for Apple to do. You don't see Adobe giving away Adobe Photo Album. You don't see Ulead giving away their video editing software.
Should Apple include iLife on every new Mac? Yes, its the reason you buy a Mac isn't it? Not only do you get iLife when you buy a new Mac, you get a rather nice bundle of 3rd party software including Art Directors Toolkit 3, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, GraphicConverter, Quickbooks, and Fax SFT, not to mention demos of FileMaker Pro and MS Office X.
I admit I was a little upset at first that I could not download iPhoto and iMovie anymore, but Apple now ships these apps pre-installed (they did not before).

Posted by Ken Edwards on January 9, 2004 2:36 AM

Comments (1)

Understandable but sucks. Course I remember iMovie 3 being not so hot so I never upgraded. The upgrades would have to be worth it and if I bought iDVD, it better work with whatever DVD player I have and not just a preinstalled one which is not an option on my iBook.

As both my still and video cameras were stolen, the apps aside from iTunes are pretty much useless until I get them replaced anyway.